EDMONTON — They used to call this place the City of Champions. Then, somewhere along the way, it became the Land of Moral Victories.
It became a place where contenders would roll through, and if the Edmonton Oilers took a point, or played them straight up all the way to the end before it slipped away, there’d be backslaps all around. They were building here, after all.
Building. And building. And building…
So after a wild, 6-5 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, this convincing, 4-1 win over Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals changes the temperature. It brings a belief that you can’t just play with the best, but you can beat them by three goals.
Belief that, maybe, this really is the 103-point team from two years ago, instead of last year’s 78-point clunker.
“It was a good night,” said head coach Todd McLellan, who from our spot at the postgame press conference appeared as satisfied with this performance as we’ve seen in a long while.
Why? Let him count the ways.
“We didn’t want to take penalties? We took one,” McLellan began. “We did a good job on the penalty kill, scored a (shorthanded) goal. Power play? It wasn’t pretty but we got one. We were able to play four lines more, rather than run Connor into the ground. Our goaltender had a bounce back game, made some really good saves. We got some real good efforts out of players who are starting to come on now. There were a boatload of positive things.”
It wasn’t two weeks ago that owner Daryl Katz and lieutenants Wayne Gretzky and Kevin Lowe travelled to New York to watch an 0-2 Oilers club play the Rangers. We were assured the visit was nothing special, but the feeling around this team was heavy, heavy stress — inside and outside the dressing room.
They eked that game out, 2-1 at Madison Square, only to begin a string of six consecutive games against teams that each had 100 or more points last season. It could have crushed this team, but the fact that it did not — so far they’re 3-1-1 against the Goliaths, 4-3-1 on the season — will make them stronger.
“I think it’s twofold,” began goalie Cam Talbot, solid with 31 saves Thursday against the defending Stanley Cup champs. “No. 1, yes, it will give us a ton of confidence moving forward. But No. 2, it’s how we won the game. How we limited their chances. How we gave up one goal, against a team that likes to win 6-5, 5-4. We knew coming in we couldn’t give them powerplay opportunities, and we only gave them one. The way we checked tonight is what we need to do.”
There is absolutely no doubt that the Oilers’ issues come from within their own zone. They’ll score enough, with Connor McDavid, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1-1-2 Thursday, 11 points on the season) looking like he’s heading for a career season.
It’s keeping the puck out of their own net that is the issue here in Northern Alberta. Limiting the mighty Capitals to one goal? That’s a moral victory that has some value in this town.
“It is definitely a confidence boost,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who is proving the perfect fit on McDavid’s left flank. “It didn’t matter who we played, we played a solid 60 minutes and didn’t give up too many Grade A opportunities or give up the puck too much. And when we had our chances, we capitalized. To keep a team like that to one goal is a good sign for our club.”
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The Oilers have been known to leak Grade A’s, and that has to turn around before anything else will. That, and giving McDavid some help.
In this game, McLellan was able to play McDavid a season-low 21:15, his lone pint coming on an empty net goal. Defenceman Evan Bouchard ripped home a power-play blast for his first career goal, a rare goal for the second unit made possible by Alex Chiasson’s screen on Braden Holtby, who was the only reason this game wasn’t over a lot earlier.
Then Chiasson, who visited the Washington room before the morning skate to receive his Stanley Cup ring from when he was a Cap last season, ripped a long wrist shot through a screen and off the post for the crucial 3-1 goal.
This, after a two-goal game on Tuesday, has been quite a week for the journeyman.
“I don’t think I’ve had a day with ups and downs in emotion like that,” Chiasson said afterwards. “It was super emotional to go back in that locker room and get that ring from Ovie and just be around the guy. It felt like I was part of that team again for a second. I had to move away from what happened this morning and in the past and focus on the game. It couldn’t have been a better outcome.”
Strange things happen to teams that win.
Like 78-point seasons that interrupt the program. Like Alex Chiassons, who sits healthy in the press box for the first five games, then grabs on to a spot in the lineup and never lets it go.
Weird things, like fairly dominating the Capitals.
Like getting two points from the good teams, not something less than that.
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